


Somewhere to Rest

by sharivan



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, Headaches & Migraines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-28
Updated: 2018-07-28
Packaged: 2019-06-17 11:12:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15460101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sharivan/pseuds/sharivan
Summary: Noctis’s headaches were clearly becoming “not normal” in Gladio’s words and “a problem” in Ignis’s, but it was some time before they required a change in their plans.





	Somewhere to Rest

Noctis’s headaches were clearly becoming “not normal” in Gladio’s words and “a problem” in Ignis’s, but it was some time before they required a change in their plans.

After a spirited battle with sabertusks that ended with Noct leaning heavily on his chocobo, eyes thoroughly covered against the light, they could no longer be ignored.

“Another headache?” Ignis asked with no expectation of an answer.

“Dude, maybe we should take a break from fighting monsters at high noon until you’re feeling better,” Prompto offered.

“Don’t think I’ll be feeling better til these damn earthquakes stop,” Noct said.

“Yeah, but like, getting eaten by monsters because you’re trying to fight with a migraine isn’t great for Lucis.”

“No one’s getting eaten, Prompto,” Gladio said.

“Still,” Ignis began, “we can at least get out of the sun.”

Noct seemed scarcely better once they were in the shade, sickly grey as the chocobos trotted forwards. Fluffster herself was more concerned by his periodic heaving motions.

“Let’s stop for a bit,” he finally asked.

“Think there’s a haven west of here,” Gladio said. “Let’s just crash there and worry about tipsters tomorrow.”

===

“Just...uh, just sit there until we get the tent set up, okay?” Prompto asked as Noct collapsed between Fluffster and Ace.

“You got it.”

Headaches were terrible and the Six were terrible and everything was the worst.

The last couple weeks of experience let Prompto and Gladio set up the tent in near silence while Ignis assembled the cook station.

“You want to collapse in a chair instead of on the rocks, Noct?” Gladio offered.

“Yeah, okay.” He stood jerkily and the world swayed before him. “Since when do headaches make you dizzy?”

“Come on, sit down,” Gladio said.

“Dizzy? It could be vertigo, I suppose. Anything else strange, Noct?” Ignis asked.

“Not really? My head hurts and everything’s too bright.”

“I’m sorry, Noct. Take a potion and eat something so you can try to sleep it off, okay?”

Noct slumped further in his camp chair. “As long as there aren’t earthquakes overnight.”

A newly sweatshirted Prompto sat beside him, wiggling until their armrests touched. “Have there been? I thought those would wake me up for sure.”

“Just little ones sometimes, mostly they’re during the day.”

“Did your dad have headaches?”

“I don’t think so. Or, like, normal ones, from long days or stress or whatever, not like this.”

“Yeah. Um,” Prompto’s hands toyed with a frayed cuff on his sweatshirt, already worn before they’d begun the road trip. “You were pretty out of it earlier. During the fight, were you...okay?”

The sound of Ignis’s chopping stopped for a second before resuming perhaps a little quieter than before. The fire gave a particularly satisfying flare under Gladio’s ministrations.

“I mean.” Noctis stopped. “Pretty okay? Sometimes we have to fight when we get hurt, it’s the same deal.”

“Oh.”

The haven stayed quiet, the fire’s crackling interrupted only by soft chocobo noises until Ignis announced, “Dinner! Daggerquill breast with rice and peas tonight.”

Later, when Noctis had retreated to the tent to sleep or at least lie quietly in the dark, Ignis and Gladio had a muttered conversation over the dishes. They had plenty of practice, so only the occasional word could be distinguished from any distance. “Worried,” was one, and “don’t know,” “auras,” and “killed.”

Prompto unzipped the tent and crawled in. You feeling any better, dude?

Noct considered. The dark was nice. Lying flat on his back, the rest of the world stayed obligingly still instead of trying to spin until he threw up. “Yeah.”

“Cool,” Prompto finally stopped rustling his sleeping bag. “Night, Noct.”

===

“Uuugh,” was how Noct greeted the next day, with unusual feeling even for him.

“Everything okay there?” Gladio asked as he emerged from the tent.

“The sun is _too bright_.” This was bullshit. The earth gave him headaches, now the sun gave him headaches…

“Yeah. So, we’re going to go find a tipster, get paid, and take it easy for a couple days before the next hunt. That sound okay?”

It sounded great. “If we can spare the time, yeah.”

“I think our schedule can allow it,” Ignis said.

The Regalia felt so smooth after days of riding chocobos over rough ground. The world was still too bright but with a jacket over his head and the steady noise of the engine and Justice Monsters 2’s soundtrack, life was pretty tolerable.

They stopped at a tiny gas station which boasted an impressive range of cactuar figurines along with their sad fishing collection.

“All right, anything else?” Ignis asked from the counter. He didn’t even sigh when Noct dropped a backup chocobo lure alongside the pile of ebony, wet wipes, spam, and - sunglasses?

“Do those even fit over your regular glasses?”

“They’re for you,” Ignis told him, handing them over.

“Oh. Thanks?”

The weight on his ears was weird, but the world was a much more acceptable of brightness with them on.

===

This time, taking it easy meant hanging out at the chocobo post. Besides the usual good stuff - chocobos, tasty food, hardly any monsters trying to eat them - it was in a _forest_ where you could keep the light from shining directly in your eyes. How had Noct never noticed that before? It was so much better than another desert.

“We live here now,” he said, slouching in a chair by the chocobo pens.

“About that,” Ignis said. “Gladio and I have discussed it, and we think it would be best for us to use this as a home base...indefinitely.”

“What? I mean, it’s great here, but we’ve got stuff to do...not-here…”

Ignis stared at Gladio.

“Yeah, kid. There’s a lot of stuff we’d like to do. But there’s no way we can take on Niflheim when you’re all sick and could get dizzy at the wrong time and killed by a sabertusk.”

“It’s not that bad,” Noct started. Was it? It kind of was.

“Noct, buddy, it seems pretty bad.”

“I - yeah. I guess we can give it a try.”

They slept in the camper that night, their chocobos turned out to pasture with the rest of the flock. Noctis fell asleep guilty, and sad, and a little relieved.

**Author's Note:**

> And they helped take care of the chocobos and took local bounty hunts sometimes and were happy.


End file.
